Suchergebnisse

APPROVED ; Background Citizen participation in policy decision-making is a key principal of government as part of creating an inclusive society. The critical policy literature on the discourse of social inclusion/exclusion argues that this dialectic is constitutive of a mental model of a benign inside of society in contrast to a problematic outside. This is further argued to orientate policy work towards bringing the excluded inwards away from the problematic sphere of exclusion, but in to what is actually an unequal sphere of inclusion. Orientated this way, the effect of policy work on the reproduction of inequality and exclusion, is argued to be made invisible. Alongside Ireland s long-existing social inequality, this literature sets the backdrop for this critical inquiry into what is occurring in the policy-work of participation . Problem or research question This study critically explores the meaning of decision-making as it is constituted in the discourse and practices of neoliberal policy-making in Ireland. In order to examine this question, the aims of the study are to inquire into how this meaning is informed, how this relationship is held in place, and the effect this has on those lower down on the social hierarchy. The study also explores the implications of these processes for society more generally. Finally, the study examines if ideas for an alternative and inclusive process of decision-making exist, and if so what this might look like. Methodology: participants, setting, procedure of study, data analysis. The study uses a feminist activist ethnographic approach to inquiry for exploring the study problem in the micro context of school-parent relations. Participant observation was undertaken in a DEIS primary school setting, over a nine month period. Interviews and a focus group were carried out with school staff, and with parents. Data analysis was an iterative process of moving between field, theory, and writing. The research was underpinned by a feminist ethics of care, reciprocity, empowerment and emancipation. Findings Study findings make visible conditions constitutive of school-parent relations that are de-politicising and reproductive of inequality. This was evident in a complex context of power relations, within and between the government, school and parents, argued to be informed by an intensification of a neoliberal market logic. While productive of an ideal type of decision-making subject, these processes were also shown to be constitutive of an inequality of access to that position. This was held in place in relations that make up the wider agenda-setting arena, notably characterised by support and kindness, but relations that were individualising and thus simultaneously silencing of dissent. An added complexity was found where perspectives shaped by concerns of risk and respectability held this unequal and de-politicised dynamic in place. The study forecasts an increasing social polarisation should we continue along this trajectory. Notably, resistance to the status quo was evident among parents and/or the school. Based on the constitutive nature of social relations this offers us hope in that we can choose to create an alternative future. Drawing from knowledge learned from those excluded from decision-making, ideas for informing policy work and mapping a collective way forward are identified. Conclusion For real inclusion to occur policy researchers and practitioners must begin their work from a presupposition of equality.

Finnish parents' views on responsibility in the home–school relations were explored. Responsibility was here understood as responsibility over education and upbringing. The data consist of semi‐structured interviews with 24 mothers and four fathers. In the home–school discourses, parents and teachers were often referred to as partners, and active parental involvement in school life was seen as a key to children's success. However, in some discourses teachers and parents were seen as polar opposites, e.g. teachers as experts — parents as laymen. Few references were made to children's responsibility.

The objective of the article is to highlight parental involvement in school life as a response to an important problem of Early School Leading (ESL) in Europe. The article presents a new important issue in the European politics: the challenges that ESL presents in countries such as Malta, Spain, Portugal and offers parent-school relations as one possible solution of solving the problem. Parents are and should be partners in the educational process. They can help at the school and their collaboration helps to form partnerships that meet the needs of all children. They exchange information and share in decision making. ; The objective of the article is to highlight parental involvement in school life as a response to an important problem of Early School Leading (ESL) in Europe. The article presents a new important issue in the European politics: the challenges that ESL presents in countries such as Malta, Spain, Portugal and offers parent-school relations as one possible solution of solving the problem. Parents are and should be partners in the educational process. They can help at the school and their collaboration helps to form partnerships that meet the needs of all children. They exchange information and share in decision making.

The objective of the article is to highlight parental involvement in school life as a response to an important problem of Early School Leading (ESL) in Europe. The article presents a new important issue in the European politics: the challenges that ESL presents in countries such as Malta, Spain, Portugal and offers parent-school relations as one possible solution of solving the problem. Parents are and should be partners in the educational process. They can help at the school and their collaboration helps to form partnerships that meet the needs of all children. They exchange information and share in decision making. ; The objective of the article is to highlight parental involvement in school life as a response to an important problem of Early School Leading (ESL) in Europe. The article presents a new important issue in the European politics: the challenges that ESL presents in countries such as Malta, Spain, Portugal and offers parent-school relations as one possible solution of solving the problem. Parents are and should be partners in the educational process. They can help at the school and their collaboration helps to form partnerships that meet the needs of all children. They exchange information and share in decision making.

The objective of the article is to highlight parental involvement in school life as a response to an important problem of Early School Leading (ESL) in Europe. The article presents a new important issue in the European politics: the challenges that ESL presents in countries such as Malta, Spain, Portugal and offers parent-school relations as one possible solution of solving the problem. Parents are and should be partners in the educational process. They can help at the school and their collaboration helps to form partnerships that meet the needs of all children. They exchange information and share in decision making.

While the value of the school-family partnership is universally accepted, it is not always easy to promote effective parent-teacher partnership. A central question that emerges is how schools can ensure that they develop their home-school relationship in a way that acknowledges the needs and perspectives of children, parents and teachers and enhances parents' participation in school activities. Our main assumption is that we can better understand school-family relations, by examining the beliefs held by both teachers and parents about their relationship. This study addressed Greek parents' perceptions of teachers, as well as their own role and responsibilities, parental involvement activities and areas of cooperation with teachers. Analysis of 581 questionnaires to parents revealed that parents perceived distinctly separate roles between teachers and parents. Teachers were perceived as "experts" in academic domains, while parents were perceived as "guardians" of children's social and emotional growth. Both teachers and parents' role was to keep each other informed about children's achievement in school and home setting respectively. Results of the study are discussed in terms of implications for initiatives to develop school-family relations in teacher training programmes.

This article takes up Bonnie Honig's notion of 'public things' to conceptualise schools as sites of attachment and meaning that draw people into the relationships of care and concern that are crucial for democratic life. By linking this with Sara Ahmed's theorisation of affective relations and use, we develop Honig's idea that communities cultivate public things through their use of such things, at the same time as the things themselves shape the communities that care for them. Drawing on focus groups conducted with predominantly white Australian mothers, we examine how relational attachments and affective relations of care and concern circulate through the object of the school, shaping boundaries between self and Other, and experiences of community and public space. The article identifies two broad themes. First, it identifies white mothers' desires for alignment between themselves and the school, articulated as seeing oneself reflected in the values of the school and community. Second, it argues that mothers' affective relations with schooling were also expressed as racialised concerns about the potential risks of 'Other' communities attaching to the school, in ways that involved demarcating 'self' and 'Other'. We argue that the analytic lens of public things draws attention to the ways that schooling imbricates parents in relational and mutually constitutive affective environments that speak to the collective power of public things.

This paper presents the results from the second phase of a case study exploring home-school relationships in Cyprus based on parents' perspectives. Interviews with parents indicated that they understood that home-school co-operation might benefit children's attainments, emphasising the family's role in education and in formation of character. Parents confirmed that current home-school relationships were limited to parents' meetings and routine communication with teachers. Many parents however emphasised that the nature of home-school relationships depended upon the teachers' approach and suggested that teachers should initiate more contact and increase the frequency of meetings. Many parents also appeared to be critical of other parents who were seen to create problems and not accept teachers' views. This suggested that improvement of home-school relationships would be challenging and could vary from a parent to parent. The relationship between school culture and orientation of the family to that culture is not straightforward and mediated implicitly through the child's social behaviour and academic achievement. The current situation in Cyprus suggests that school teachers' bring two key constructs to home-school relations: one relates to children's conduct, character and manners; the other to learning, acquisition of knowledge and academic attainment. Where there are concerns about either of these, teachers regard it as the parents' responsibility to address them. Parents meanwhile acknowledge the dominant role of teachers in defining the home-school relationship and accept that the nature of the relationship depends upon the parent as well as the teacher. However, they would welcome more opportunity to renegotiate this role.

While in the past, parent engagement was relatively neglected by school districts and only slightly attended to by scholars, there is a well-funded and fierce battle for the political voices of parents today, especially in low-income communities. Using observational data from school closing hearings in New York City, I argue, first, that the school-closings process pits parent groups and sectors of the community against one another in their similar quests for good schooling. Second, I discuss contradictory orientations toward parent engagement: one based on free market ideology, and another on principles of democratic participation and engaged citizenry. Finally, I argue that parent engagement is becoming a commodity in the larger battle over the direction of public education. Adapted from the source document.

The present study examined the impact of psychosocial treatment for children in residential boarding schools on relations with their parents and family, and on the extent of the children's satisfaction with the boarding school. Fifty‐one boarding schools (91% of the boarding institutions in Israel) participated in the longitudinal study. The sample consisted of 418 respondents, including boarding school directors, social workers, psychologists, programme directors, counsellors, therapists, and house mothers. The findings reveal that the children maintained a moderate level of contact with their parents and families. The children's overall level of satisfaction with the boarding school was found to be moderate, and increased to the extent that they received more hours of psychosocial and therapeutic care.

Scholars Sean Kelly and Laura Northrop discuss recent changes in perceptions of school quality. They find that Americans are not positive about the overall quality of elementary and secondary schools in the United States, while beliefs about school-to-school differences in quality are often exaggerated.